Jack Tar

Outraged that we gave O'Hagens such a high score Richard recommended we try Jack Tar.


It was a lovely walk through the viaduct. And we loved sitting outside watching the boats.





The service was good, we were seated and had our order taken very quickly. But it took about 30 minutes for our food to come and that was a bit long.

I had the grilled chicken supreme.


The best part was the vegetables! They went beautifully with the jus. The chicken was good but a little dry.

Pamela had pork belly bites and sauté potatoes.


She loved them both and gave them a 10 out of 10 for taste. They were both snack sized so it made the perfect lunch. Our lunches cost $24.50 and $28, this was on the high side for lunch. The cost and the time it took were the two things which affected our score. Overall we gave Jack Tar 77.59%. (Sorry Richard, this is still lower than O'Hagens)

Mamak

Mumak is a Malaysian restaurant which was recommended by Ajay. They have an amazing menu which made choosing very hard! We had David and Ajay with us, so we got to see several things off the menu.


Ajay was keen for a good score for his recommendation so his comments made for an amusing lunch. For example, the good looking crowd meant a better dinning experience!!!


David found it all very amusing.


We sat outside, i think we were lucky to get a table it was really busy. Apparently you have to get there quite early if you don't want to wait. The food took a little while to come, but it was worth the wait. For the amount of food and location it was reasonable priced with mains around $14 and the tapas averaging $10.

So for the food. We had three tapas. Firstly chicken bites


Vegetarian dumplings


Pandon soy bites, not entirely sure what these were but they were amazing!!


Pamela got the satay chicken. She loved the spices and flavours, even when it made her face turn red and her eyes tear up!


I had the chicken noodle curry (big surprise there) and I loved it. It was perfectly spiced and really tasty. I couldn't finish it because it was I had eaten so much.


Nasi goreng Tom yam, or a spicy Thai style fried rice with squid.


We had a lovely lunch and I think I need to go back again to try the rest of the menu! Our overall score was 81.32% for Mamak,

Albert Street Asian food court

Last week David recommenced to us the Asian food court on Albert Street. If you didn't know it was there you would miss it.


There are heaps of places to choose from. Not what you would call first class but its very popular.
Pamela had Malaysian, where there's lots to choose from and all at good prices.


Malaysian noodles with pork. She really enjoyed it. It was quite big and it came really quickly. The pork was lovely and tender and just a really tasty meal


I ordered Japanese. Once again it was chicken teriyaki and I also ordered vegetarian dumplings


It was a huge amount of food for $14!




I liked the dumplings, but the soy sauce was a bit different then what I'm use to and that wasn't I nice. The chicken teriyaki was also good, lots of vegetables as well as chicken. But we thought the Malaysian was better.

Overall we gave this place (the overall food court) 73.21% it's a great place to go for a quick hot lunch.

Location: 9-11 Albert Street Auckland

The Empire

Last week Pamela and I went to The Empire. This was Katie's second recommendation but we had also been here for pizzas with work for dinner a few weeks back. The pizzas were really good especially with wedges to go with them.



There is an awesome outside seating area outside at the back of the pub which is gorgeous for lunch. As it was quite busy our order took 30 minutes to come so not a great place if you're in a hurry.

I ordered The Empire burger........


It doesn't look so scary now, but when it arrived I wasn't really sure how to go about consuming it. Lets just say, it's perfect if you are really hungry. Very tasty burger though and chips of course were the perfect side salad.

It's a good thing I could only eat half of my meal as Pamela ordered The Empire salad box with chicken. To say she was disappointed is an understatement. It took her nearly a week to be able to give this place a rating.



It was served in a takeaway box, a very sad excuse for salad in the bottom with chicken wings on top and a 'plop' of dressing. For nearly $15 she felt this wasn't really good enough.

She walked back to work hungry and had to have a chocolate bar which completely defeated the point of having a salad for lunch.

So mixed results, overall we gave it 67.79% lovely place to go, as long as you're not looking for a healthy salad.

Location:137 Victoria Street, west